002 [Audio]

[whichwayissouth]

[When this audio clip begins, you'll hear a lot of clanking, yelling, and otherwise sounds one may associate with a fairly busy bakery. It'll probably ruin your ears if you had te volume turned up high, but in a few seconds the sound quietens considerably and you can hear a young man speak

Comments

[audio]

[maple_syrup_can]

Au-! [Oh, wait, he didn't want to be known.]

Um- A-are you okay? Was that an explosion? Should I send the fire department?

[audio]

[whichwayissouth]

----it was an explosion, yes. And don't be silly, nothing is greatly injured except perhaps the walls. I've just finished baking a strudel, that's all.

Re: [audio]

[maple_syrup_can]

I'm glad to hear you're all right...

........

I'm sorry... but baking usually doesn't end with an explosion. Were you trying to make something better than the 'special'?

[audio]

[whichwayissouth]

It occasionally does, as far as I know. The food is not especially affected by it.

[Machines hate Austria. The troubling part is how he doesn't quite realize that this is unusual.]

Anything is better than the special. The special is not edible, have I not already told you?

[maple_syrup_can]

It... it shouldn't ever, really.

Y-yes, you made it very clear! I don't even want to imagine how the filling could be florescent green. [*cringe!*]

[whichwayissouth]

Imagine yourself making it. The experience is quite unsettling, to say the least.

And did you just say something before? I'm afraid I could not quite catch you.

[maple_syrup_can]

Um, s-sorry, I was just worried that something occasionally explodes when you bake- th-that sounds really dangerous. It shouldn't really do that...

[whichwayissouth]

It's no more dangerous than any other form of cooking. Are you saying that your stove does not go up in flames every once in a while? [He's a good cook, really. Really really really. He just sucks at dealing with anything with buttons.]

In any case, you should know that we are more resilient than that. There was no danger to me personally, and I've learned how not to singe my hair.

[maple_syrup_can]

[Don't you other nations have any self-preservation instinct? Gyah. As if America trying to blow himself up every year with fireworks wasn't bad enough.]

Yes, I am saying that... especially a modern stove should not do that-!

A-and even if you're resilient, the people around you are not so much?

[whichwayissouth]

Are you joking? Only the modern stoves do that, nothing ever exploded during the Renaissance.

It's only a minor explosion. My coworkers should be safe, I have not destroyed a whole kitchen for half a century. [Really now, Canada. What did you take him for?]

[maple_syrup_can]

Sorry, sorry...

[He doesn't know what to take you for at the moment (except for a touch irritated?). He's just confused about what's going on here, mostly. And scared that you could take out a whole kitchen with your stove.]

I just... wonder how that could happen.

Um, speaking of modern things, how have you been finding other things on the Thor? Some of the things here are pretty amazing, eh?

[Change of topic but not really.]

[whichwayissouth]

[Austria has a tendency to irritate people, Canada. You're in good company.]

Ah, yes. The technology here is quite remarkable, indeed. Did you know that the Guide can open separate windows as we discuss this? And that the lights in the refugee quarters can turn on and off on their own? And only the refugee quarters!

It would be quite wonderful to have this back on Earth. Everything would've been so much more convenient, wouldn't it?

[Except the Earth already has those....]

[maple_syrup_can]

[[Ah- I meant that Canada thinks that Austria is irritated... But good to know. XD]]

[Canada is dying to ask what OS you're running on your computer at home. But he's afraid to ask.
At least he's starting to get the picture of why Austria has a hard time with stoves.]

Ah... Yes. I'm sure you'll find even more amazing things than that! Most of it is kind of similar to or based on things from home, so if anything is giving you trouble, I'm sure we can figure it out together!

[whichwayissouth]

[Well, Austria is also easily irritated, but what else is new. This is why you should not tag on a groggy day oops.

And also, Austria doesn't use computers, of course. He writes his documents with quill and ink and have his assistants turn them magically into printouts.]

What kind of remarkable things are you referring to? Although....it is odd. If this is truly an alien ship crewed by sentient mice, why would anything be so similar to home?

[maple_syrup_can]

[[Equally, I should not do any more at 3am...]]

Ah, like the flat-bed things for transporting cargo that float... [he gestures vaguely - it's easier to point it out than explain it.]

But, um, good point. I suppose so that we're more comfortable?

[whichwayissouth]

A bed? Why would anyone transport cargo on a bed?

That's true, I suppose, but I've thought that there are more alien species here than human refugees. Perhaps this is why there is the purist group I've been hearing about.